Anyway, I found that Kumar was trying to bring the things that immigrants who travel to new places with passports have to deal with to the foreground, and how their passport is like a book. Or a biography. Not one you would see on A&E or the Biography Channel, and probably not as interesting for the reader. Kumar brings up the immigrant's feelings of shame when looked over by this immigration officer. The officer only makes the connection between the passport and the holder of the passport; makes sure they both match up. For the immigrant, that passport holds their life within it. The passport tells the reader everything there is to know about the holder: birthplace, parents, scars, surgeries, allergies, imprisonments, other travels. The officer probably doesn't know where that city the immigrant lived in is located, or even how to pronounce it. All these things are real to the holder of the passport, but just a story to the officer. An immigrant will feel shame standing there in front of the officer, being looked over like an object. The immigrant will feel shame because there is no understanding between himself and the immigration officer.
Kumar is saying that we have to try to imagine what other people are thinking, especially when they are unsure of their surroundings or are looked down upon for being an immigrant or someone traveling from another country.
I really liked something that Kumar said in the middle of the reading, about migration being all around us as a metaphor. "We all cross frontiers; in that sense, we are all migrant peoples."
Also "Words are our defense against invisibility." Kumar is talking about the migrant worker disappearing into the anonymity of history, as the writer continues on. Words, if they reach the right audience, will continue forever, as great or infamous deeds done by a person live on in history books or news reels or newspapers.
It's also very interesting how Kumar threw in a few pop culture references into the reading, such as the line borrowed from hip-hop artist Rakim: "It ain't where you're from, it's where you're at," and then continues from that line onto the photographs of the experiences of immigrants in the United States.
It's funny how Americans, when talking to somebody they assume speaks a different language, will raise their voice as if the person is hard of hearing. Talking louder will not make your language intelligible to someone who doesn't speak that language. It is by language that most people, especially immigrants, are defined, even though (and I never noticed this before) passports do not incorporate what language the passholder speaks into it's critique of your background.
Well, I've kind of jumped around a bit with this article... but that's all I'm going to write for now. I found this article interesting; a lot more interesting than some of the other assignments we've tackled so far.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment